“Disrespectful to him and to me”: Rybakina comes out in defence of coach after Australian Open controversy

Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina has once again come out in defence of her coach Stefano Vukov.

The 36-year-old came under severe criticism after making animated gestures and shouting at the current world number five during the Australian Open 2023 semifinal against Victoria Azarenka.

Rybakina was recently quoted in a report where she stated that people in the tennis community criticised her coach without knowing the full picture and that it was not only disrespectful towards him but towards her as well.

"People don't really know us that well and like to comment or say something that they don't know," she said. "It's not their business at the end of the day. I think it was kind of disrespectful to him and to me. I just had to do it so everybody knows that whatever they can see or think, they don't know us. Hopefully, we won't get any other comments like these.”

In that match, the 24-year-old came out on top in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-3. However, she fell one step short of lifting her second Grand Slam title after losing the all-important final to the current world number one Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka with a score of 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

From there on, Rybakina found it hard to continue the momentum in the remaining big tournaments during the year.

In the French Open, she withdrew from the third round because of illness which ended her campaign.

In Wimbledon, where she was defending the title, her journey came to an abrupt end after she lost to last year’s finalist Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in the quarterfinal with a score of 6-7, 6-4, 6-1.

In the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year — the US Open — Rybakina was knocked out from the third round after losing to Romania’s Sorana Cirstea with a score of 6-3, 6-7, 6-4.